The government released its comprehensive (but not conclusive) report on the one year anniversary of the tsunami yesterday. It is presumably intended as an update to the nation and aid partners in relation to the tsunami rebuilding. Whilst a full accounting of the relief fund donations and progress reports on development and infrastructural needs is welcomed, questions are raised as to why there has been a delay in meeting the shortage of water tanks. It is accepted that the infrastructural works needed to connect all resettled villages with the pipelines to the SWA water network will take a long time. The report states an estimate of up to two years (Annex 6, para 1, page 66 - Water). Given the resource constraints that SWA and MNRE face, this is a reasonable estimation of time. In the meantime, the medium-term solution to water supply is by way of water tanks. The expectation for the supply of water tanks is much higher. In my opinion, water tanks should have been fully provided to all affected and resettled households by now. It has been one year. However, the report reveals that there is a serious shortage in the supply of water tanks (Annex 6, page 67 - Housing).
There were a total of 502 new homes built (181 by NGOs and 321 by government)[1]. However, there were only 347 water tanks provided by the Red Cross and Oxfam. That is a shortage of 155 water tanks for 155 new houses. The report states that “a request has again been processed through the two organization [sic] for additional water tanks, given that this is the most urgent need, particularly amongst the relocated communities”.
This is simply not good enough. These people have been waiting for a year. Whilst the bureaucrats in Apia put through requests, go out to lunch and then go back to their homes with running water, a whole multitude of people out on the south coast have to keep walking for miles to get water from their relatives. Leaving aside the indignity of essentially having to beg from relatives or the indignity of having to wait for water trucks like refugees, the sheer inadequacy of water supply simply cuts into the normality of these peoples’ everyday lives. They cannot do many essential everyday tasks without a ready-supply of water.
The questions that come immediately to mind:
1. How long have you known that there would be a shortage of water tanks to the number of houses built? …and don’t lie
2. How long have you known that the Red Cross and Oxfam cannot supply the necessary amount of water tanks in time?
3. Where were the contingency plans for such a situation occurring?
4. There is no explanation in the report as to what the plan is if Red Cross and Oxfam keep delaying, so what is the plan if such delays keep happening?
5. Have you tried getting water tanks from other sources? If not, why not?
Missing from the report was an assessment of the estimated timelines for water tanks. The people in these resettled areas have a right to know how long the delay in water tanks will be.
I wonder whether these faceless bureaucrats and their CEOs in ministries have visited these people and tried to live a day under these conditions. The citizens of Samoa deserve a higher standard of service from these bureaucrats. Indeed, the government as a whole. In other words, a decision should have been made a long time ago to either source water tanks from somewhere else, or apply to other aid partners for water tanks. Simply processing requests and waiting for a reply appears to be an extremely blasé approach to the urgency of the situation.
This is not intended as an attack on all government workers and contractors. I recognize that they have done more than I have to help the tsunami victims. I also acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of victims are in housing and have their water tanks. I also acknowledge that because most of these affected villages want to move inland, it presents major geographical and financial challenges on the resources of SWA, EPC
Government Tsunami Report - 29 September 2010
[1] In addition to the 502 newly built homes, the government rebuilding programme also included 360 houses that needed to be repaired, for a total of 862 houses that were either newly built or repaired. ST$9.4 million was the disbursement for this programme. A third of the houses were built by NGOs. The rest were built by the government, but the government funded the entire programme.
